Did you spend too little time on the trainer and too much time eating pumpkin pie this winter?. Now that the weather is finally turning and the Holidays have passed, are you ready to get out and ride? How’s your motivation? Here are our top 4 ways to get yourself motivated for the riding season (in no particular order).

1) Get a fitness app.

There are a number of apps to choose from. We here at the shop are partial to Strava because it is geared towards the racer who is seeking results. Fitness apps provide a well organized and easy to use exercise journal. They monitor your progress and help you set goals. The next best thing to riding is being able to look back on your ride and see what you accomplished.

If you don’t have a smartphone, there are other ways to record your rides. A GPS cycling computer such as a Garmin 510 can easily be mounted on your bike and later recorded data can be uploaded onto your favorite fitness app online. Many cycling computers are able to sync up with wireless cadence sensors and heart rate monitors. Stop by the shop and we’ll be happy to show you some great options.

3) Clean and Tune up Your Bike

Cycling is only enjoyable if your bike and gear are functioning properly. Dust off the cobwebs and bring your bike in for a spring tune-up so that you can enjoy your exercise.

4) Get a New Bike!

You might find this crazy, but nothing motivates like a new bike. Sell your old bike and come grab a new one. The same principle can be applied to new gear. Come grab some new shorts, gloves, shoes, pedals, helmet, etc…All these things are going to enhance your riding experience and are guaranteed to add some motivation.

The purpose of this class is to teach you the steps on how to develop your own training plan. We are not personal trainers here but we have lots of riding and racing experience plus I have read lots of books on the subject. If you really want to get hard core get a personal trainer they will help you a ton and help you get to your goals faster than any other way.

What are your goals?

What are you trying to accomplish, do you just want to go faster, have a century in mind or want to do Lotoja? Depending on what your goal is will affect how you plan.

Begin with the end in mind. There are several different types of exercises and routines you can do, knowing where you are going will help us pick which to do.

I look at training as 3 different animals: Short distance Road biking under 50 miles, Long distance Road Biking, Insane distance over 100 miles.

The different type of training regiments

These are some common training regiments, think of these like sets when you go weight lifting. Each one does different things and we’ll help you in different ways. Before starting these you need to figure out your max heart rate. The easiest way to do that is, to get a heart rate monitor, bike 10 minutes as fast as you can then rest 5 minutes then do another 10 minutes as fast as you can, the highest your heart goes is a pretty good estimate of your max heart rate. You can also take your age – 220 but that is a ball park figure

Fast Pedal - This ride should be done on a flat section of road and will go on for about 30 minutes. Start with at least a 10 minute warm up, then pedal for 1 minute at a 85 to 90 RPM then go to a 95 to 100 RPM, repeat this 2 times (4 minutes total) then rest 2 minutes, this would make a complete set. Your heart rate will climb but don’t use it to judge your intensity. This workout is all about your cadence, focus on that.

Endurance Miles - This is also called base build miles, we want to do these a lot in the beginning of the season. Find a long ride (at least an hour) and keep your heart rate between 50-91% of your max heart rate the entire time.

Tempo Training is an excellent workout for developing aerobic power and endurance. This will really help to make your legs stronger. Keep your gears high (harder) and your cadence low around 75-80

Climbing Repeats- Do this on a road with lots of hills, preferably short hills. Keep your heart rate at 95-97% of max as you pedal, Cadence should be high around 90-100. Basically you will go up the hill as hard as you can for 2 minutes, then go downhill for a bit, then back up repeat. You can do this on a long hill to; just go up as hard as you can for 2 minutes take it easy for 1 minute, repeat.

Power Intervals – These hurt, but are extremely helpful. Don’t do these more than 2 times a week. The way these work is you gradually increase your effort for the first 30 seconds until you get to what you feel is your max you can sustain for 2 minutes, then keep it at that max effort for another 1 minute and 30 seconds. Take your effort down for 2 minutes, repeat.

There are more work outs to choose from these are just some very common ones. I recommend any of Chris Carmichaels books or videos along with the Cycling Training Bible by Joe Friel

Developing the plan

Now its time to put it all together. I normally write out a weekly plan, what rides am I going to do each day what days am I going to rest etc. On the topic of rest, rest is extremely important, if you start a ride and you are super sore from the last day, take it easy, just do a nice gentle ride. The worst thing you can do is push it and try to build, soreness is the body’s way of telling you to take it easy.

For short distance rides, do a lot of power intervals, climbing repeats, and fast pedal work outs. SO here is a basic example of how a short distance work out would go.

Short Distance

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Warm Up, 4 sets of fast pedal, 2 climbing repeats

Recovery Ride

Warm Up, Tempo Training 10 minutes, 4 Power intervals

Recovery Ride

Warm Up, 4 sets of fast pedal, 2 climbing repeats

Endurance Ride (2 hours)

Rest

For Long Distance, do a lot of endurance miles, a lot. Also in Utah you want to do a lot of climbing repeats and more power intervals.

Long Distance

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Warm Up, 2 sets of fast pedal, 6 climbing repeats

Recovery Ride

Warm Up, Tempo Training 20 minutes, 6 Power intervals

Recovery Ride

Warm Up, 4 sets of fast pedal, 2 climbing repeats

Endurance Ride (3+hours)

Rest

For Insane Distance, you are going to train very similar to Long Distance, in fact depending on where you are at in your training you will start with Long Distance than work up.

Insane Distance

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Warm Up, 2 sets of fast pedal, 6 climbing repeats

Endurance ride (2+ hours)

Warm Up, Tempo Training 20 minutes, 6 Power intervals

Recovery Ride

Warm Up, 4 sets of fast pedal, 2 climbing repeats

Endurance Ride (5+hours)

Rest

Recovery

Your body needs time to recover, the purpose of the recovery ride isn’t to build more muscle or lose more weight, it’s to get the blood circulating in your legs to remove the lactic acid build up.

The key with any work out plan is to adjust it weekly. If you get sick for a week, this will set you back about 2 weeks, 1 week of being sick and 1 week to recover where you were before you got sick. You want to be building off what you did the week before. If you were able to do all the power intervals than add another set. If you are limited by time, try doing more sets and lest resting time between. The key is to develop the plan each week and work towards your goal.